


Void

by netherooze (Raelien)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Post-Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 12:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raelien/pseuds/netherooze
Summary: There’s a word caught in his head when he looks at her.“Entrapta.”It is the right thing to say. Her face lights up and she approaches him swiftly. He doesn’t even flinch away from what should be a hostile native. He doesn’t want to.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 342





	Void

He stands in the instruction chamber among nine of his brothers. Two more of his brothers stand at the front of the room; they arrange the videos that play on the large screen mounted between them. After each video ends, the two instructors ask questions of the ten viewers. They always answer in unison, in the same voice. A new video starts.

He feels a distinct absence of knowledge, a nearly distracting awareness that there is so much he does not know. Regardless, he is learning all he needs to.

\---

He proceeds to physical exercises along with the rest of his brothers. When he falls short, his body failing before the others have even begun to tire, he is singled out for the first time. The instructors use a number when they refer to him, and it takes him an embarrassingly long time to realize the number is his sole designation. When the others in his group are called to continue to more advanced movements, they are also called by number designations. He has no idea why he would expect anything different for himself. 

The instructors assure him that though his performance is unsatisfactory, he may still be of use to their lord even in his limited capacity. He must simply find his—undoubtedly brief—place on the battlefield and take as many of the enemy down as possible before he inevitably falls, just as the other defectives do. He will never achieve the glory his more perfect brethren aspire toward, but he can find at least some small scrap of honor this way. He nods his understanding, though inside he burns. The burning is not useful. He shoves it aside and resolves to serve his purpose and his lord.

\---

His squadron is deployed to the surface of the planet Etheria. They're sent to secure a site of great importance to their lord and crush any resistance by the natives they may encounter. The structure appears to be inundated with advanced but foreign technology.

The members of the squadron split up to clear the structure, which is comprised of several chambers of varying sizes. He is alone in one such chamber when he spots an array of tools strewn over a console. One of them rolls off the lower edge and falls to the floor. 

He holds his weapon high as he steps further into the room, slowly approaching hidden corners to check them. He freezes when he spots a door to a storage compartment that hangs just slightly ajar. He approaches slowly and nudges the door open with his weapon.

A wrench swings at his face, brandished by a sort of lavender tendril. _Hair._ He manages to stumble back out of its path, though for some reason the sight makes his throat clench.

One of the natives emerges from the storage compartment—a female, he somehow knows. She's quite small, compared to him, and her face is covered by an odd insectoid mask. He lowers his weapon without meaning to.

"You—" He stops short. He doesn't know what he intended to say to this creature.

Her head tilts and she seems to examine him intently.

"Hordak?"

He blinks. _Hordak._ It's a designation; he knows it is. It should be his, he thinks. It somehow suits him better than his number.

He likes it.

There’s a word caught in his head when he looks at her. She lifts her mask and he’s ensnared by her gaze. Trapped.

_Entrapta._

“Entrapta.”

It is the right thing to say. Her face lights up and she approaches him swiftly. He doesn’t even flinch away from what should be a hostile native. He doesn’t want to.

“Hordak! Glimmer said they did something to you, and your eyes, they're—different. What happened?”

His throat catches. He feels that yawning void of knowledge keenly. He doesn’t want to disappoint her. “I don’t know." 

She takes hold of one of his hands with hers. Even through her gloves, she feels warm. _He_ feels warm.

Instead of happy, now she just appears concerned. "Do you—Do you remember me, really?”

“I—” Something strange is happening to his eyes. They sting, and his vision is blurring.

She is dismayed. “Oh no. Don’t do that. I don’t know what to—” She appears to come to a decision and abruptly embraces him.

He should kill her, he knows. Capture her, at the very least. He shouldn’t just stand here clutching this creature to him like she’s something vital.

He doesn’t want to leave this, to go back to experiencing only the burning humiliation of his inferiority again and again and again until he dies. He doesn’t feel inferior here. He feels wanted.

A burst of weapons fire echoes toward them from a distant chamber. She pulls away, and he sees that her eyes are glistening and the skin around them is reddened and slightly swollen. She grabs his arms above the elbows, and excitement creeps into her voice. “Do you want to get away from them?" 

_"Yes,”_ he breathes. 

She smiles once more. “Do you want help?”

His mind races alongside his pulse. “How?”

She proves very adept at quickly rigging things to explode. 

She shoves all of her tools and a few bizarre crystals into pockets of her overalls and regards the console sadly as she steps away. “A shame, but I guess I’d learned all I could from it anyway.” She turns to him. “Leave whatever you want them to find, and let’s hurry. We’ve got about three minutes.”

Without hesitation, he drops his weapon and pulls off a pauldron. She’d asked if he was equipped with some kind of tracking device, but he hadn’t been able to tell her that he is so expendable—as are all his brethren, really—that there would be no point in a tracking system. He’d just told her “no” and left it at that.

He moves to leave via the same doorway he used to enter the chamber initially, but she tugs him the other way with her hair. “Nah, this way’s better. C'mon.”

She leads him hastily through a maze of chambers, supporting him with her hair without a word when he swiftly begins to stumble.

A loud boom echoes through the whole structure. Distant shouts follow. She brings them to a stop before a large, sealed door and immediately begins brandishing tools at the panel alongside it. In mere seconds, she has the door open, and together they’re treading out into the sunlight. 

They push for the cover of the nearby trees, and a staticky voice calls from her pocket. “Entrapta? Entrapta, come in!”

She—_Entrapta_ pulls out the device and answers back, “I’m here, Bow! Did you get out OK?”

The device catches a moment of heavy breath and rustling movement before the reply. “Yeah, barely! Did you?”

Entrapta’s hair moves restlessly. “Yes. Where are you?”

“I’m headed back to where we left Swiftwind. Can you meet me there?”

“Sure!” She turns to look at him with a grin. “And I’m bringing a friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> This kept eating at my brain until I typed it out. No more planned for now, but maybe it'll start gnawing at me again.
> 
> Apologies for the delay on chapter 3 of Synchronous. Rest assured that S4 hasn't dissuaded me from continuing. If anything, it's left me even more hyped to share what comes next. ;)


End file.
